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TopState Of The Workforce
As of 2018, the magnitude of the cybersecurity workforce shortage is estimated to grow to 3 million unfilled security positions globally by 2021; the need to fill these gaps is urgent (ISC2, 2018). The top concern placing companies at risk is the inability to fill positions due to the lack of cybersecurity professionals (ISC2, 2018). Employers have difficulty finding those with enough experience and skills to fill critical positions. The problem has reached such critical levels that in 2009 former President Barack Obama called the United States lack of qualified cybersecurity personnel as “one of the most serious economic and national challenges we face as a nation” (Office of the Press Secretary, 2009).
Even though 57% of the total U.S. workforce are women, only 14% of cybersecurity positions in North America are held by women, which is only slightly better than the 11% of comparable positions filled globally (Poster, 2018). One of the world’s largest employers, the U.S. military, shows women making up 15% of its workforce, of which 25% are in information technology fields that cybersecurity is a subset of (Poster, 2018). In the civilian sector, women make up 26% of the information technology jobs, down from 36% in 1991 (Annabi & Lebovitz, 2018). The more alarming statistic is that 56% of all women in the information technology field leave after five years pursuing other careers, resulting in a turnover rate twice that of men in the same field (Annabi & Lebovitz, 2018). According to Annabi and Lebovitz (2018), several barriers contribute to women leaving the technology fields, including, but not limited to, “stereotypes, questions of legitimacy, isolation, access, masculine organizational climate, and work-life balance” (p. 1050). If the workforce shortage gap is to be closed, employers need to take advantage of highly skilled women and promote to attract this underrepresented group into the information technology fields, including but not limited to cybersecurity.